YuriSizov
commented
2 years ago Hmm, I'm not sure there were a lot of complaints about drawers taking too much space. Most complaints are that they require additional clicks to interact with (toolbars were always visible), that buttons can be too cryptic and require learning what they mean, and that they aren't as flexible as one would hope.
Drawers are opt-in, you have to click the corresponding button for them to show up, so they only take as much space as you need. A shortcut to toggle all of the available drawers on or off at once can be added for convenience, of course. But I'm not sure there was criticism regarding them taking space, so that would solve a different problem.
What does take a lot of space is the toolbars that we have now. That was one of the established problems that this proposal is trying to address.
winston-yallow
golddotasksquestions
timothyqiu
Describe the project you are working on
Godot editor
Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project
It's been a long standing issue that the toolbar row on top of the editor viewports is very crowded when it comes to contextual tools. Not only does it create a lot of clutter for users to untangle reducing productivity, but it also prevents us from comfortably supporting PCs and laptops with smaller displays. This segment of users is very important for us, as a lot of Godot users work from smaller laptops with limited screen space.
But even for people with huge monitors (like myself) the amount of icons on the toolbar can become overwhelming depending on context of selected nodes. While we do some work to move tools away from that panel (https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/54342), we also introduce new tools that are important to people who work visually (https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/54372). There is also an argument to be made that the toolbar row loses its purpose when we start adding more and more functionality to it, sometimes not even strictly "tool" functionality.
For a better perspective on what areas of the engine it affects see multiple linked issues in https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/31133.
Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation
One of the proposed solutions was to create an overflow for the toolbar and automatically hide excessive elements there. But this doesn't really solve the problem with over-crowdedness and only partially improves usability on smaller screens as users are unable to pick the tools that would go off-screen.
My idea would be to use the space inside of the viewport, and give users a chance to pick. Enter "tool drawers". The concept is similar to Blender's tool panels to the left and right of the viewport. They are hidden, but can slide over the viewport area and provide additional tools, including contextually relevant tools, without a strict limitation for the horizontal space. This allows to better explain what the tools do with labels and titles instead of relying exclusively on pictograms and tooltips.
The ability to select specific sections of the drawers gives users a way to only see the instruments they currently need, while still having access to the tools they may use another time. And while space over the viewport is not exactly free real estate, it can be a decent compromise when the need to use a contextual tool arises.
Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams
I have a basic prototype done, and moved a couple of control-related contextual toolbars to the drawers. Here's how it works:
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/11782833/141829169-ed66309c-987b-4808-8da3-ce6561817b33.mp4
Also look at how tiny and cute the editor can go!
If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?
This is about the editor usability.
Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?
See above.